Rogue State by Richard H. Owens Page A

condition. It was charged with duties which could be neither denied nor evaded; and constrained to the use of powers, which undoubtedly exist in contemplation of law, and yet the modes of their action had not been prescribed, only because the necessity to put those powers into practical exercise had not been foreseen.
    In this state of things, we took the only course which lay open before us - a course of prudence, of moderation, and of conformity to the principles and objects of the Constitution. It was our sacred duty to suppress the insurrection, to repel the invasion, to put down the official treason in Virginia, which had perverted all the organic powers of the state, into active hostility against the nation. And in performing this duty, we could do no less than recognize all of Virginia which remained faithful to the Constitution, and which demanded the protection and support of the national government.
    In this view, and only in this, we advised and consented to the organization of a new government for Virginia, seated, for the present, in the northwest, where alone it could act in safety. Those who organized that government were a small minority, but they were all that remained to us and to the Constitution. And we all know (certainly I did) that such a government could not be organized by such a people, at such a time, and under such circumstances, in exact conformity to all the minute requirements and particulars of the Virginia Constitution. But, for that reason-for the crimes of a comparatively few individuals which render an exact compliance with forms impossible, shall a nation be allowed to perish, a State be blotted from the map of the world? No, God forbid. The substance must not be sacrificed to the forms. (Author’s italics).
    Our first great Constitutional duty is to save the nation, and the States: and, if possible, we must save them according to law. But if the two duties conflict, still the greater must be performed, and the lesser must yield, even as a conflicting act of Congress must yield to the Constitution. We all know - everybody knows - that the government of Virginia recognized by Congress and the President, is a government of necessity , formed by that power which lies dormant in every person, which though known and recognized, is never regulated by law, because its exact uses and the occasions for its use, cannot be foreknown, and it is called into exercise by the great emergency which, overturning the regular government, necessitates its action, without waiting for the details and forms which all regular governments have. It is intended only to counteract the treacherous perversion of the ordained powers of the State, and stands only as a political nucleus around which the shattered elements of the old commonwealth may meet and combine, in all its original proportions, and be restored to its legitimate place in the Union . (Author’s italics).
    It is a provisional government , proper and necessary for the legitimate object for which it was made and recognized. That object was not to divide and destroy the State, but to rehabilitate and restore it. That government of Virginia, so formed and so recognized, does not and never did, in fact, represent and govern, more than a small fraction of the State - perhaps a fourth part. And the legislature which pretends to give consent of Virginia to her own dismemberment, is, (as I am credibly informed) composed chiefly if not entirely of men who represent those forty-eight [sic] counties which constitute the new State of West Virginia. (Author’s italics).
    The act of consent is less in the nature of a law than of a contract. It is a grant of power, an agreement to be divided. And who made the agreement, and with whom? The representatives of the forty-eight [sic] counties, with themselves! Is that fair dealing? Is that honest legislation? Is that a legitimate exercise of a constitutional power, by the legislature of Virginia?
    It seems to me